Digging Deeper is a collaborative project between public and private institutions to increase food security in Des Moines, IA through strengthening and expanding its local/regional food system. Lead organizations are the Des Moines Community Gardening Coalition and Practical Farmers of Iowa. The Digging Deeper project is so named because the project doesn't start a whole new program for the Des Moines community; it is extending and deepening the current efforts of the Des Moines Community Garden Coalition (DMCGC) in partnership with Practical Farmers of Iowa. The project is funded through a grant from the USDA.
The purpose of the Digging Deeper Community Food Project is to:

• Increase food security activities
• Develop capacity among existing community food resources in low income and underserved communities in the Des Moines area
• Improve economic self-sufficiency
• Increase community access to culturally appropriate and nutritious food
• Make connections between community members, organizations and resources to ensure the viability and longevity of an urban Des Moines food system.

Specific goals include:

• Improve family fruit and vegetable production, consumption and access in central city low-income neighborhoods.
• Improve accessibility and utilization of diverse, sustainable seed and plants.
• Increase interaction among people in central city low-income neighborhoods.
• Strengthen relationships between low-income/resource people in central city neighborhoods with both neighborhood and extra-neighborhood resources.
• Increase production of fresh perennial foods in public and semi-public central city neighborhoods.
• Expand access to fresh perennial foods for low-income central city residents.
• Expand economic activity associated with existing community gardening.
• Increase food production in existing community gardens.

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Door of Faith Mission	House of Mercy	St. Marys Family Center	St. Marys Family Center
Capital Park/East 12th St Plant Schedule	King Elementry Pant Schedule		Orchard Place Plant Schedule

Nine targeted neighborhoods or organizations will be identified to receive help in establishing a perennial edible landscape, in many cases centered around a fruit tree orchard. Existing community organizations within the central city neighborhoods were preferentially considered. Demonstrating willingness and ability to carry out such a long-term commitment is necessary. Two orchards will be planted the first year, three and four orchards would be planted in years two and three, respectively. Edmunds and King schools, Door of Faith Mission, St. Mary’s Family Center, Evelyn Davis Learning Academy and the City of Des Moines have already made commitments to partner with Digging Deeper to receive edible perennial landscapes.

Beside fruit trees, the sites might include herbs, berry bushes, strawberries, asparagus, grapes, rhubarb, etc. based on the needs of the community it serves, location, soil types, and other factors. Dunbar Jones, a landscape architecture design firm, will work with the neighborhood organizations to design each site. Staff, or volunteers, at each site will be trained in how to plant and maintain the perennial food plants. Attention will be paid to using easier care plants such as dwarf trees. Organizations selected to receive perennial edible landscapes have committed to caring for these perennials - planting, watering them well the first year, pruning if necessary, mulching, and coordinating harvesting.
Each group receiving help in establishing a perennial landscape has agreed to provide five adults to be trained at a neighborhood/school based plant/tree care demonstration class. Classes would focus on basic care and maintenance of perennials and orchards, including planning, planting, pruning and spacing.

Garden mentors knowledgeable in perennial plant care will be paired up with each site and help with training and subsequent monitoring of the sites. Mentors will instruct on how to plant the perennial plant material, and develop maintenance strategies including pruning, mulching, watering, harvesting techniques, pest and disease control. A horticulturalist from a plant-based private company is in charge of the mentoring program.

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Digging Deeper will support a significant increase in gardening among low-income communities in Des Moines. The project will provide targeted communities with raised bed gardens with one perennial plant (such as a rhubarb plant, a raspberry bush, or a fruit tree) with follow-up assistance from experienced gardeners.

Two neighborhoods would be identified each year of the three-year project to help obtain raised bed gardens with an edible perennial in individual yards or in common areas of multiple family housing. A total of at least twenty beds would be built in each neighborhood each year, for a total of 120 gardens during the three years of the project. The Capitol East, Carpenter and Moulton/Urban Dreams neighborhood associations have already made commitments to partner with Digging Deeper to receive raised-bed gardens.

Digging Deeper has chosen to work on the neighborhood level with the goal of using urban gardening to build community among neighbors. PACE youth, Home Depot staff and neighborhood leaders will be trained in community organizing skills during the winter. In early spring, all three groups and Digging Deeper staff will pair up to canvass the selected neighborhoods to identify recipients of the raised-bed gardens. Each recipient of a raised bed garden and perennial edible must agree to attend one neighborhood based gardening demonstration class. Classes would focus on basic care and maintenance of gardens, including planning, intensive planting, site selection, and spacing. The project will continually look for opportunities to increase neighbor-to-neighbor interaction, as well as connecting people to neighborhood (such as associations) and other local resources.

In April and May of each year of the grant, PACE youth will assist Home Depot staff in building, delivering and filling the 4 foot by 8 foot raised-bed gardens. Home Depot will be responsible for most materials, construction, delivery and organization of the gardens. The City of Des Moines will be providing compost for the gardens. Each gardener receiving a bed would have access to a mentor visit during the growing season. The neighborhood/community organizations partnering to create the gardens in their neighborhoods agree to assist in outreach to find and coordinate potential individual backyard gardeners. They are committed to aid in designing the outreach strategy, include information about the project in any newsletters or fliers, and find six adults willing to work with the trained youth to canvass the neighborhood door to door. In addition, they are providing one person who will act as the central coordinator in the neighborhood to help coordination canvassing and communication with interested backyard gardeners.

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